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Pulling the '57 from its case attracts oohs and aahs from all and sundry

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For some players, anything post 1964 or thereabouts just won't do when it comes to Fender Stratocaster aesthetics. Such enthusiasts absolutely insist on the 'right' body curves, nitro-cellulose lacquer, spaghetti peghead logo, vintage-style vibrato and Klusonesque, slot-head tuners.

And if you want all that from Fender's non-Custom Shop line, your only option is the American Vintage series.

Those guitars have their drawbacks for modern-minded players, however, notably their thin frets, too-curvy-for-big-bends 7.25-inch radius fingerboard, sticky nitro-finished necks and vintage single-coil pickups.

By and large, these were much the same 'problems' afflicting Strats back in the early/mid-1970s, even though the guitar had changed markedly by then from its 1950s forebear.

This drove many players to customise their guitars in line with new playing styles and sounds, and gave rise to a whole heap of aftermarket parts suppliers. It's to this legacy that Fender very gently doffs its cap with these new Vintage Hot Rod Stratocasters.

We're not talking out-and-out Floyd-plus-humbucker monsters like Van Halen's Frankenstein or Steve Vai's Green Meanie. We're not even talking two-pivot vibratos and clever switching aka the American Standards.

So why do we need these? Well, even the hugely popular American Standard Strat is a whole flight of steps too far for dyed-in-the-wool Strat enthusiasts: they don't want two-pivot vibratos, modern tuners, blocky logos, bi-flex truss rods, poly finishes and, heaven forefend, flashy modern colours. So let's keep those 'improvements' super subtle shall we?

Overview

Candy Apple red, sir? With a maple neck, sir? Just pulling the Vintage Hot Rod '57 from its included tweed case attracts oohs and aahs from all and sundry; very few other guitars inspire this kind of instant reaction.

It's a nitrocellulose finish, too, which is the old school, labour-intensive, expensive way of doing things. Cellulose finishes are loved for the way they age (dis)gracefully, hardening and eventually thinning over time to let the guitar breathe – something that's impossible under an impenetrable poly coat, no matter how much you abuse it.

It's also interesting to note that the '57's alder body looks and feels very marginally more lovingly contoured under Fender's 'thin-skin' finish than the '62 model also on test; these bodies do receive a fair degree of hand sanding.

In classic fifties Strat tradition, this guitar has a single-piece maple neck with the requisite walnut skunk stripe on the back. It's the neck that earns the '57 most of its Hot Rod tag, thanks to some welcome changes to the standard American Vintage spec.